Why Textbooks Suck.

I REALLY ENJOY ALMOST ALL BOOKS AND YET I GENERALLY HATE TEXTBOOKS, EVEN THE ONES I AM WRITING. I THINK MOST ACADEMIC BOOKS ARE LARGELY UNREADABLE BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO NARRATIVE AND HUMANS ARE DEEPLY PROGRAMMED TO FOLLOW STORIES AS A WAY OF LEARNING.

FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS WE TOLD STORIES TO EACH OTHER TO EXPLAIN HOW TO GET ALONG IN THE WIDE, WILD WORLD AROUND US. THE INSPIRATIONAL TEACHER ENTHUSIASTICALLY ADDS BACK THE NARRATIVE TO STRING TOGETHER THE FACT AND THEORIES BUT WHEN WE GO TO WRITE THIS ALL DOWN WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE FLATTENED DOWN AND THE NARRATIVE SLIPS AWAY.

WHAT WE WANT TO READ IS SOMETHING THAT  CONSISTS OF A SERIES OF OCCURRENCES BROUGHT TOGETHER IN A PLAUSIBLE WAY. WHAT WE HAVE TO DO IS BRING BACK THE STORY.